TSA loses drive with personal data

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has lost a computer hard drive containing Social Security numbers, bank data and payroll information for about 100,000 employees.

Authorities realized Thursday the hard drive was missing from a controlled area at TSA headquarters. TSA Administrator Kip Hawley sent a letter to employees Friday apologizing and promising to pay for one year of credit-monitoring services.

The agency said it has asked the FBI and Secret Service to investigate.

TSA, a division of the Homeland Security Department, is responsible for security of the nation's transportation systems.

The hard drive contained information on employees who worked for TSA from January 2002 until August 2005.

Washington

Gay-firing answer brings apology

Republican presidential candidate Tommy Thompson apologized for saying an employer should be allowed to fire a gay worker solely for being gay.

Thompson said he had misunderstood a question Thursday during a GOP candidates' debate in California. The question: "If a private employer finds homosexuality immoral, should he be allowed to fire a gay worker?"

His response: "I think that is left up to the individual business. I really sincerely believe that that is an issue that business people have got to make their own determination as to whether or not they should be."

Asked if his answer was yes, Thompson said, "Yes."

On Friday, Thompson told CNN he should have asked the moderator to repeat the question. "I made a mistake. I misinterpreted the question," he said in a telephone interview. "I didn't hear, I didn't hear the question properly and I apologize."

New Orleans

School district hires chief

An administrator with a reputation for shaping up big-city schools was hired to lead New Orleans' district as it recovers from Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana officials said Friday.

Paul Vallas, 53, now the head of Philadelphia's public schools, will take over as superintendent of the state-run Recovery School District on or after July 1, state Education Superintendent Paul Pastorek said Friday.

Boston

Body buried under wrong name

A body misplaced by the Massachusetts Medical Examiner's Office was buried under the name of another man, and the individual originally believed to have been buried was still in the office, officials said Friday.

When the body in the office was discovered, state police dug up the grave and found Thomas E. Brissette, whose body had been missing, the state Executive Office of Public Safety said.

The misplacement of the body led Gov. Deval Patrick on Thursday to place the state's chief medical examiner, Dr. Mark Flomenbaum, on a paid leave of absence pending an investigation.

The identity of the second man was not released.

Seattle Times news services